Democrat ends his challenge

Joe Vosicky, a Democrat who narrowly lost the general election for state representative in a Republican stronghold and then waged a seven-week challenge to the results, ended his fight Thursday.

"At a certain point, you've got to say you've run a good race," Vosicky said in conceding to Dennis Reboletti, a Will County prosecutor from Elmhurst.

Vosicky, an attorney from Elmhurst, lost by 299 votes to Reboletti. Voters cast 26,712 ballots in the race for the open 46th District seat, a northeastern DuPage County post occupied for years by Republican Lee Daniels, a former state House speaker.

Early vote totals showed Reboletti defeated Vosicky by 296 votes, but Vosicky said he may have lost votes through the mishandling of computer memory voting cards and ballot boxes that were found unsealed.

Vosicky requested and received a partial recount, which showed Reboletti winning by 299 votes. Vosicky and his attorney, Richard Means, maintain the election tabulation remains questionable. Last week, Means threatened to take the challenge to the state House of Representatives.

But the campaign decided against that move Thursday.

"We're not 100 percent sure about where the election stands," Vosicky said, adding that the cost of an appeal to the House was a factor in ending the challenge. "From what we saw, we think we picked up some votes, but we don't have enough to go to the floor of the House with it."

In a statement, he added that "the irregularities found during the recount illustrate why it is essential to tighten up the election process to make it more transparent and to protect sensitive election materials."

Reboletti said Thursday that he has been "moving along as a state representative-elect" by hiring staff, looking for office space, fielding phone calls and meeting with local officials.

"It's a rather unique situation when you win an election and continually have people ask you if you've won an election," Reboletti added. "I'm glad to learn that I'm not going to have to deal with that as a sidebar and I'm looking forward to doing the work of the people."

But DuPage County Election Commission Executive Director Robert Saar said the cost of the recounts fell far short of Durante's estimate. Vosicky's campaign "paid for everything they were supposed to," Saar said. "The statute does not direct that the candidate pay for everything.

"Everybody did what they had to do," Saar said. "I don't fault anybody for anything they did, but I'm glad it's over because we're actually working on February and April elections that are coming up pretty quickly."